Misfits
by thatbadwolfgirl
Summary: It's the start of the new Hogwarts term, and 4 girls have no idea that they are about to embark on terrible individual mysteries that will leave there lives nothing like it was before. As Caitlin has to choose between good and evil, Scarlett discovers her inner beast and Natalie and Kira discover the true meaning of being morally good, the group of witches are changed forever.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

23rd August 2014

12:37pm

_Slosh-thwack! Slosh- thwack! Slosh- thwack!_

The rain splattered against the window before trailing down the glass and splashing hard into the drainpipe amongst all the other drops. Beyond, the sun was also bleating through and lit up the entire room apart one corner of it that basked in the darkness of shadows.

Caitlin rubbed her forehead. Another headache. Probably due to the sun, of which its rays were directly hitting her for the last hour as she had been sat on her bed, blazing away through the glass window next to her. Or from the shouting that was directly coming from beneath her, downstairs, from her Parents, they never stopped. There was definitely no other reason for her headache. Ok she'd been having them almost every day since the incident last term but that was no reason to seek medical care, despite what her mum said.

Caitlin felt a flush of anger. Her mum should be with her right now, or at least she should be doing something even the slightest bit entertaining that prevented keeping her daughter hunched up in her room all summer. She was always arguing now, and that was the excuse. Caitlin didn't even know what they were always fighting about, but they never stopped fighting – it worried her.

_Slosh-thwack! Slosh- thwack! Slosh- thwack!_

She placed a bookmark in her copy of _The Dark Arts: A Legal Companion, _her headache couldn't make her bare to read the final 30 pages. It didn't matter, Caitlin already knew what the next pages were about, she had been studying the book over the last 6 weeks over and over, just for good measure, after all she wanted to succeed in the subject this year, and especially this was the year everyone would be preparing for their OWLs which would be the following year. And Caitlin was desperate for a good grade in every subject.

Today, alongside the book she had only just put down, she had resorted to studying the book _Hogwarts: A History_, the updated version, of course, she had a hunch that the battle of Hogwarts held 15 years earlier would somehow crop up in her history exam, her Brother had mentioned that a whole section of the Battle had turned up in his last year, so she had to be prepared if the eventuality rose. Then again, Alvan could be lying, he often does, and Caitlin was never sure if she could believe him. She could barely trust anyone as it was, mind about someone who would lie to her the majority of the time. She would often compare her brother to _The Boy Who Cried Wolf _a muggle fable that she had also read this past holiday, she studied muggle fairytales too.

_Slosh-thwack! Slosh- thwack! Slosh- thwack!_

She picked up the book off her lap and placed it on a pile of books she had been studying from all summer, and then stared at the other 16 books that were underneath her current reading one. Maybe her headache will lay off in the next few minutes to allow her study another book for a little longer. Caitlin pulled a face and sat back on her bed, maybe she'd studied a little too much today, she could do with a break. Regardless she still picked up the book that was on her bedside table, _Blood Brothers: My Life Amongst the Vampires, _she often enjoyed reading books like that one, stories based off true ones, and it opened up her eyes that maybe someday she could lead a life that was like ones in a storybook.

_Slosh-thwack! Slosh- thwack! Slosh- thwack!_

A knocking sound came from the window beside Caitlin, a sound clear to anyone that it wasn't the sound of water hitting the glass. She looked to her right to see the blurred image of an owl pecking quite ferociously at the window, in an act to be let in. Caitlin grinned as she recognized the figure of the bird, threw her book to one side and unlocked her window to allow it to hop onto the inside window. It ruffled its feathers vigorously to shake off any excess water that was dripping from him. Caitlin turned around to shield her face from the rain drops before turning back and smiling at the owl, grinning at its presence. Before doing anything else, she quickly tried to pull the window back shut against the gailing wind that accompanied the rain and sun. The owl softly hooted as a thank you before walking sideways and more closely to Caitlin, before offering its right talon out to her, a letter tied onto it.

The letter slid off from the string that bound it to the leg of the bird and Caitlin unraveled it.

'Thanks Sage,' she patted the owl gently on the head before starting to read the letter that was written for her, the page and ink had been slightly drenched by the rain, yet it was still fairly illegible. Sage, the owl, had found its way to her own owl's cage, that was open, and had perched itself inside, beside her own owl.

_Hey Caitlin,_

_I know it's all a bit out of the blue but do you fancy meeting up somewhere? Like maybe London? Diagon Ally? I mean we promised to stay in touch over the summer but we haven't and I hope we can get together before the new terms start. I gather you'll be too indulged in work at school to hang around too much so I thought we could now, well that is if you're not already found a book that's better than my company. Write back anyway, I'd like to meet up; really, it'd be nice to have a good catch up._

_Nat_

It was about time Caitlin had met up with someone, she'd stayed up in her room all summer to avoid everything that was going off downstairs. She knew if she did ask her parents if she could go out for a little while, they'd be too angry to say yes, even though London wasn't far at all from her house, especially not on a broom anyway. She was sure no one would notice her if she did leave for a couple hours or so, no one would ever miss her. Quickly, she rummages through a drawer on her bed side table to find some parchment, and scrawls a reply down onto it.

Sage was called onto Caitlin's bed as she untied the string that was still attached to him and reused it for her own message. Before opening the window to allow the bird return out into the rain and back to his own owner, she scoops up some bird treats from her own owls' cage and allows Sage to pick some of the treats from her hand. The owl carefully pecks some nuts bit by bit as Caitlin forcefully opens the window again with the one free hand she had left. The owl gave a final hoot towards Caitlin before spreading its wings and taking off out the window carrying her message back to her friend.

Caitlin shut the window again to avoid the rain getting her room anymore wet than the owl had made it. Her headache had gone now. She wasn't sure whether this was because seeing Sage and being in contact with her friend had eased some of the stress that both the studying and her parents had forced upon her. Or whether it was plainly because the sun had gone behind some black raincloud now.

She watched the owl soar of into the distance, talons stretched out and wings spread wide. Owls are so beautiful, Caitlin thought, and she stared at it until it became a speck in the distance. Smaller and smaller and then gone.

1:04pm

Natalie Methraden was an easy girl to like. She often had sweeping red hair, brown eyes and a wide smile, and a calm midlands accent. She would never fight; she was a patient girl and tried so hard in everything she did.

'We wanna finish above 5 of these wands by today, love. We wanna have a good stock of 50 wands at least before the school term. Here,' Natalie's father passed to her a wand on the table in front of them both. He was a self-employed wand maker and he only needed help from his daughter now and again to speed up the making of each wand, especially when the demand for them would rise rapidly in the coming weeks.

Natalie smiled and started carving patterns into the wand, she enjoyed helping out when he needed it, and she found it nice she could put her artistic talent into something other than drawing. She also took it on a lot more often in the summer months to prevent being bored – she didn't really hang out with many people out of school. It didn't help how her family lived in a small house outside London in the middle of nowhere, and it was all they could afford in the area. Her mother still disagreed with the move 4 years on but everyone knew it was to benefit the wand making business, and really, in recent years they had made more money than they had in smaller cities such as Lincoln or Nottingham. But Natalie helping also made her dad happy too and it gave him someone to talk gibberish about each type of wand and its unique personality to, Natalie was too happy and too kind to reject such thing.

'Look Dad, nevertheless, I promise we'll get enough done, it's just, I thought, maybe, me and Caitlin could meet up today, y'know, in London somewhere. I mean we haven't seen each other since we left school and we need to catch up somehow.' Said Natalie 'I promise that when I get back I'll finish what you want me to do. Like don't bother carving any patterns on them, I can do that afterwards.'

Her father nodded, 'Yes, fine. I do think you deserve a break a least. Have you got a reply from her then?"

'Well, not exactly. I sent Sage out about half an hour ago when I was having dinner and I haven't had a reply yet. But Sage won't return without one, you know what he's like, so when he comes back, if he comes back, I'm sure she'll have answered me. And besides, surely she'll want to meet up."

'I see," Natalie's dad replied bluntly. He used his sleeve to wipe some sweat from his brow, it was quite hot and stuffy inside the working shed and the muggy weather outside made matters no better, 'Well you can take a break anyway, and if you do go out, tell me or your mother first. And do be careful, it's windy out, anyone could be knocked off their broom.' He turned to her and gave her a concerned look, then out of the small window in the shed. Grey clouds filled the gloomy sky; the sun was only slightly visible through one in the distance. It was getting unusually dark for this time of year.

'I will, don't you worry about me, I'll be fine.'

'I know, it's just the weather is looking bad, you hear things y'know, in the _Daily Prophet_, stories about people getting chucked off their broom in storms and being sent to St. Mungo's for the rest of their life.'

'Look I want you to be happy, don't use the weather as an excuse to be miserable.'

'An excuse?' He had more of a confused yet annoyed expression painted across his face now, rather than concerned.

'Maybe _you too _could do with a break from wand making. Go out, meet some friends in London. It'll take your mind off all the stress. Proper people. _Living_ people.'

'Is this about Kingsley?' A week or two ago, Natalie's father had met up with a guy interested a little in investing in his business, only they met up to get to know each other first, before Kingsley could make any assumptions and Natalie thought this was a perfect opportunity for him to make a friend rather than being so self-indulged in work. Kingsley was a stoat middle-ages man who would spend most of his evenings down in a pub, and whose idea of a good night out sadly didn't extend to listening to a three hour lecture on different types of wood and how they affect magic in a small wine bar, and, as Natalie's dad had assumed by Kinsley's attitude with him at the end of the night, he was never offered an investment.

'Not necessarily. I just think you shouldn't let your work lead your life. Anyway, I'm gonna go, see you later.' She waved as she turned on her heals and left the shed. Her dad was right; the weather was kicking up a nasty storm. Natalie put her arms in front of her face to stop rain drops flying from left right and centre into her eyes.

She ran quite quickly up into her room so she could change into something a little more appropriate for a meet up besides some hoodie and jeans that were covered quite literally head to toe in sawdust. In front of her was her window, that was almost completely filled with rain drops streaming down it from the storm yet there, pecking rapidly and quite angrily at the glass was Sage completely dripping with water.

'Shit…' Natalie mumbled to herself seeing her pet so unhappy outside as it kept squawking seemingly as a plea for help. In a hurry so opened the latch of her window to let her owl jump inside, still making a recognisable cry for help in various high pitched sounds. 'I swear to Merlin I am so sorry I wasn't here for you to let you in.' She was very annoyed also that she had only taught the bird to fly back to her bedroom when returning a letter, but she knew if she had taught Sage to come to her wherever she was, whoever was around her would simply ask her what the letter was about, in some ways she still stuck by her original decision, even if her bird did have to face being locked out sometimes – she was fairly torn over how annoyed she felt, actually.

Sage shook off the rain dripping from his feathers and Nat had to look slightly away to avoid the rain, she giggled to herself though as he did. He comfortably hopped closer towards Natalie and held out his right talon to present a letter tied to it. She confidently took the letter from her owl and read the letter, ink bleeding out from the water, yet she still managed to read it – just.

_Hey Nat!_

_I'd love to meet up, seriously! I really would have written to you before but, you know, things have been going on and it's been quite tough for us all, really. I'll definitely meet up with you today, I'm getting ready to leave now, so don't bother writing back, I know you'll turn up whenever, just arrive in your own time. You see right now my parents or Alvan and Pandora won't see me leave so I may as well go right now rather than wait for you to reply only for me to reply again back and so forth. Look, I'll meet you in, let's say, Diagon Ally, outside Flourish and Blotts. I'm on my way now as you're reading this so I'll be there when you arrive. I'll see you later then._

_Caitlin_

Natalie smiled, Caitlin was always thinking in front of herself and this letter proved it quite simply. There was a small chunk of writing just after _'it's been quite tough for us all really.' _But the majority of it had been too badly smudged apart from select few words that really wouldn't help in deciphering it. She could just simply ask her anyway when they see each other.

Sage was put away in his cage soon after, and locked in so he couldn't create any mess in Natalie's room, and she got dressed into some better clothes to meet up in, it was nothing to fancy, just some jeans, and shirt and hoodie, but it was comfortable, and she could put her hood up in the rain on the way there.

Before she left she had gotten permission from her mother for use of the family broom, The Yajirushi, which was her brother's prized possession after receiving it in the early summer months in time for the Quidditch World Cup.

With quite a rough take off in the wind, Natalie rose higher than her house and flew steadily towards Diagon Alley at a reasonable slow speed, before speeding up, faster and faster, and then she was out of sight.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

1:29pm

Caitlin was already preparing to land down the street of Diagon Alley, it had took her a slightly longer time to reach her destination than she hoped, she very much longed for a better broom, she had the Nimbus 720, an amazing model back in 2009, but not so much now. She would have normally asked for a broom by now, but with the recent events going off in her family life, it made things like that too hard, she could only wish for brooms like the ones she watched in awe during the Quidditch World Cup earlier that year.

She scraped her feet against the floor on a cleared bit of the street before stopping the broom to a halt. Caitlin took a look around as she dismounted and picked the broom up. The whole street was mainly bare, but that was probably due to the storm that was only just starting to come to a halt. Caitlin wandered back down the road a few hundred yards towards Flourish and Blotts, which was quite a convenient place to wait as it had a balcony overhead that would shield the rain while she stood there, thank merlin, Caitlin thought, as she tried to shake some of the rain off of her clothes and hair.

1:42pm

Natalie was hovering over Diagon Alley, scouting for a decent landing spot. She wasn't a very confident flyer and she had never actually landed a broom in such a tight area before, she started panicking a little. The broom was swaying in the wind and she started finding it harder and harder to keep it still, it started lowering to the ground too ever so slightly before a gust of wind nearly sent her falling from the broom. Natalie let out a cry as she began to lose her balance before letting her hands grip onto the wood again. She was heavily breathing.

'Hello? Caitlin?' She knew if anyone around could help it was her friend, she loved flying. But no one could hear her. She may have only been 200 metres in the air but the rain and wind made it almost impossible for anyone to hear someone, especially someone as quiet as she was in the circumstances. She sighed and closed her eyes. She had to land. She had too.

Despite the wind pushing her from left to right and right to left, she leant forwards in an attempt to lower the broom in her control, and it swooped further and further to the ground, the wind throwing her forward. Her speeding rose to one she wasn't ever so comfortable with and her feet scraped against the floor quicker than she expected. She gasped as he broom carried on getting lower until her knees were touching the ground and running against the floor with her feet. The broom was almost completely on the floor and Natalie had to lean far backwards to make it stop suddenly. She really wasn't cut out for flying.

The broom was laid on the floor still as Nat had to bring herself to a standing position where she leant against a wall and caught her breath back. Her heart rate had risen, expectedly, and her legs were hurting from being dragged backwards in the rough landing, no doubt they were somewhat grazed. Luckily for Nat, there was no one actually around to see her misfortunate landing as she couldn't be doing with dealing with everyone's reactions, either gasping and asking if she was alright, or laughing at her problems – she was never any good at talking to people.

After resting for no more than a minute, she bent down to pick up the room before making her way to Flourish and Blotts. A quick scan of the broom confirmed to her that there were no massively noticeable scratches or breaks on the wood that would send her brother crazy, which probably wasn't a very good sight.

Natalie caught sight of the shop they were meeting at and made her way to the front of it, yet Caitlin wasn't there… Surely she would be here before she was. Caitlin must have set off a good 45 minutes earlier and, even though she did live slightly further away than she did, Caitlin should have arrived way before she had. Anyway, Natalie had that small 'blip' in her landing that perhaps made her even more late. Natalie sighed and turned around to look in the window of the shop. She looked in in awe of the amount of books stacked shelves upon shelves and the Monster Book of Monsters books all displayed in the middle of the shop, kept in cages to avoid attacking anyone who was browsing.

There were footsteps coming from behind Natalie, but she didn't bother turning around, she was too busy glancing around at all the stock, and thinking if she could buy anything decent with the 3 galleons and 16 sickles she could afford to bring. She was caught thinking about the prices of the books when she felt a large sum of weight pounce onto her back. She screamed. Turning around she saw an amused Caitlin with a large grin stretched across her face, trying not to laugh at how easily impressed her friend was by a book store window. She was also holding back laughter from seeing how much Natalie had jumped just then.

'Oh Merlin, I should have known.' Natalie shook her head mockingly. 'Always making an entrance. Where've you been?!'

Caitlin let her grin merge into a smug smirk, 'I suppose I like to make myself seen. I was here the whole time. Just I saw you coming and I thought y'know why not, so I just was waiting around the side of the shop till you came along. And well, I scared you.' She chuckled to herself.

They both started walking down the street, with etched smiles across their faces, they were so happy of each other's company, company of which they hadn't had in all of the summer holiday.

Passing the most well-known wand shop in Britain, Ollivanders, Nat stopped again to watch the man himself, Mr Ollivander, crafting a particular wand, she studied the craftsmanship in admiration.

'What do you find so fascinating about making wands?' Caitlin asked, walking up behind her and putting her hands on her shoulders, peering inside too. As much as Caitlin was so interested in learning new things, she never could understand the importance of making wands. She didn't have a creative bone in her body.

'I dunno really… I guess it's just a family thing; I've just grown up with it, haven't I? Anyway I'm practising making them right now; I'm looking for new designs.' She smiled again and turned back around. She suggested they should go to a sweet store before sitting down somewhere to talk. Caitlin accepted the offer. She could never turn down an opportunity to get some chocolate. They began walking again slowly, and silently. Dreading the silence, Caitlin began to start a conversation again.

'How are things anyway?'

Natalie smiled comfortingly, 'Oh good, y'know, probably better than what you're going through…' She looked down at her feet and clutched her fist, she realised she shouldn't have said anything. That was one thing Caitlin hated about Natalie, half the time she would never think before saying something and it annoyed her. She hated people talking about her family in the state it was in and most importantly she made people know she didn't.

'What?' Caitlin snapped, raising an eyebrow.

Natalie racked her brain; she didn't like Caitlin being angry, or sad, for that matter. 'Oh well, I thought ever since last years… "Incident", your parents have been a bit rowdy… That's all…' Last May, Caitlin's father had revealed in a letter to Caitlin that he had been a Death Eater before he married her mum; Caitlin thought nothing of it as he explained that he dropped the act when he actually met his future wife. Though as the whole school eventually found out, Caitlin lost most her friends, popularity, and trust from everyone as everyone thought she would turn out the same way, even if her dad did stop being a Death Eater. Everyone called it the "incident" when referring to it; Caitlin hated anyone saying aloud what actually happened. However Caitlin wasn't quite sure that was why her parents were fighting. She knew, perhaps, that the whole thing might have started it, but why? He had dropped being a Death Eater back in the early 90's before The Dark Lord even came back into power so it shouldn't be a problem. Caitlin just didn't know.

'I don't really think about it that much.' Her voice was a lot quieter than normal when talking about the subject; it made her feel a little uneasy. 'I stay upstairs now, I stay away where I know I won't be effected, or effect anyone.'

Natalie didn't carry on the subject, she knew it was a bad choice even starting it; instead she just gave reassuring smile and shut up for a minute as they reached the entrance of the sweet shop, Sugarplum's Sweets Shop. Propping up their brooms on the broom rack beside the entrance, they walked through the door to be greeted with the usual smell of melted chocolate and sticky sherbet.

Both girls walked over to shelf stocked up with chocolate frogs. 'Ooo chocolate frogs, I hear they've got new cards to collect!" Nat announced – both girls competed against each other to see who could collect all the cards first, however they often got all of them before new ones were released, which left them anticipating the new ones even more.

'Really?' Caitlin grinned, 'Aw great news. I've probably got all the old ones thrice other!'

Natalie chuckled, 'Yeah, or they're just updated ones with new patterns.' She picked up one packet of the frogs before proceeding to the counter, picking up a packet of Bertie Botts Every Flavour Beans. Caitlin followed quickly picking up some beans too. She stood behind Natalie at the counter then paid for her items after her – 16 sickles for the lot, quite cheap in Caitlin's opinion, who had brought along 40 Galleons with her.

They sat outside on the closest bench after paying and Nat almost instantly had opened her chocolate frog packet, and was trying to catch the frog before it jumped away.

'Gotta catch it quick…' She mumbled, grabbing the frog and shoving in her mouth. She tried to say something but it was so muffled with the frog inside her jaw that Caitlin couldn't make out what she was saying, she just laughed and opened hers too, eating the frog as quick as she could.

They both looked at the cards in the bottom of the packet and announced what they had received. As Natalie has already stated, the cards were new types. They both peered over at Natalie's card – Beaumont Marjoribanks who was the founder of gillyweed.

'How ironic,' Caitlin stated, knowing that Natalie wasn't just a massive lover of wands, but she was obsessed with plants both muggle and wizard ones alike.

Natalie smiled, 'I know, right!' She chuckled then looked over as Caitlin checked out hers.

Caitlin laughed a little as she first read the name of her card, 'Uric the Oddball – The Weirdest Wizard of the Ages,' She smiled and shook her head.

Natalie laughed also, 'Suits you right then!' She exclaimed, giggling still.

Opened mouth in a sort of 'how dare way' Caitlin playfully punched Natalie 'Get lost' she grinned 'If anyone's odd it's you!'

'Nerd,' Scoffs Natalie.

'Plant freak.'

They both end up laughing together for a short while, exchanging dry insults.

Finally standing up and looking around the area, Natalie quickly changes subject, declaring which shop they'd depart to next. Of course, Caitlin wasn't too bothered at all, she was more than happy even if they just stood beside each other and didn't speak, at least she had the company of her best friend, of course they probably wouldn't manage it, and they'd start laughing from the silence, as anyone would.

As the previous times before, Nat was distracted by yet another shop, this time the shop Broomstix, a shop full to the brim of Quidditch supplies, brooms and Quidditch team kits. That was more like Caitlin's shop.

'Come on then!' Caitlin took Natalie's wrist, 'Let's take a look! Nat come on!' They stopped outside the shop to admire everything inside.

'Oh Merlin…' Nat stared at the newest global Quidditch team uniforms. Nat maybe wasn't the best at flying a broom herself but she still was a big fan of Quidditch as most Wizards and Witches were.

Caitlin shot a look in Natalie's direction. 'Woah,' she looked in awe before scanning the shop for her favourite teams' uniforms. She knew that there wasn't any point in buying the England kit, as they hadn't even qualified for the World Cup that year, which was utter rubbish, and Caitlin refused to have anything to do with them.

'Toyohashi Tengu! Their new uniform is amazing!' She pointed towards her favourite teams new kit, she was much more of a Japanese Quidditch fan compared to the British teams. She always claimed that the Japanese played the game a little gentler compared to other countries, which she agreed with more.

Caitlin finally noticed her favourite league team and stared at the shirt. 'I really need a Falmouth Falcons shirt, seriously. I love the team.' She had supported the team since she was a little girl and first took a liking to the sport, despite her family supporting other teams – her mother and her sister both supporting Montrose Magpies due to their mother being half Scottish and her Father and brother supporting Ballycastle Bats. All of which made Caitlin think that her family were just Glory hunters when supporting as they had been the team to win the most in the league. Caitlin always claimed she would stay true to her heart and support the Falcons as they were the most local team to her home, despite being perhaps the worst team in the league. It did make the league more interesting nevertheless with the whole family supporting different teams. Well that was when the family was happy enough to go watch all the matches…

Natalie by now had seen the price tag for the shirts alone '30 Galleons! You're joking! I don't have that sort of money!' She looked down, even though her family owned a good business, they never were the wealthiest family to live. Caitlin was ruffling through her pockets, she hated how she could afford nice things but her best friend couldn't. She took out 30 of the 40 galleons in her pocket.

'Here,' She grinned 'You really deserve it more than I do,' She kept looking at the shirts; Caitlin did want one but she had more money at home, Natalie could do with being treated.

Staring at the money in her friend's hand, Natalie shook her head declining. 'No way! Not with what you're going through! If anyone deserves it, it's you!' She pulls out the remaining 3 galleons from her pocket and placing it in Caitlin's held out hand. 'Take them.'

Caitlin sighed, sometimes her friend was just too nice, Caitlin saw that as another flaw, you need to have a balance of good and bad, she believed, otherwise people will just get annoyed, as she was with Natalie. 'I don't do charity.' She said firmly 'I have plenty of my own money…somewhere… If you want this shirt get it" She smiles a little, 'Early birthday present.'

Natalie smiled a little bit too 'But surely your parents won't want you giving away their money?"

'Like I said I have a lot of money, they won't miss it.' Caitlin shrugged.

Finally taking all the offered money, though quite reluctantly, Natalie walked into the shop as Caitlin slid her back against the wall waiting for her to come back with the shirt she wanted.

Natalie was in the shop for no longer than a couple of minutes and she left it carrying a single bag in her hand. She sat beside Caitlin against the wall and dug into the bag. Coming out of the bad was two beanie hats and two badges one of each for Falmouth Falcons and Toyohashi Tengu.

'Here you go,' she says passing the Falmouth Falcons items to Caitlin. She tried to hide a grin, she was definitely pleased with the things she was given but after all if was her money anyway.

'Uh, thanks?' She said, 'you do know you didn't have to, I said you should get the shirt you wanted.' However she still attached the badge to her own shirt and put the beanie on her head. She wasn't sure if it suited her, she'd never worn a beanie before, and nevertheless, it was cool.

'What friend would I be if I took your money openly and didn't get you something?' She passed back over the remaining 20 galleons adding back to Caitlin's 10 galleons left over. 'I can save up for the shirt on my own. Don't worry, I'm capable of it, even if you do have so little faith in Me.' she grinned, noticing a glimpse of Caitlin smiling as well. She was glad to see her little bit happy.

'Alright then…'

'Cheer up Mrs Serious!" and at that moment Natalie stood up and started jumping up and down like a little kid, although the two could be complete opposites at times, Caitlin still loved her and appreciated the effort to make her happy.

'Alright, I will, I will! Just, stop that,' Natalie carried on, Caitlin stood up to and shook her head in disbelief 'If we were in school right now I would so hex you right now!'

Natalie tried to actually picture herself frozen to the floor. 'I know you would but you can't now,' she laughs.

'Exactly but just you watch when September comes; I'll wipe that smirk off your face!'

'I know it's bound to come. Looks like I'm just going to have to make the most of it while I can.' She continued jumping around getting closer to Caitlin, who was trying to keep a serious face.

With no thinking, Caitlin got hold of Natalie's shoulders, pushing her against the wall of the shop behind her. 'Maybe so but without magic I'm still stronger than you' She smirked, putting much of her weight against her shoulders to stop her from moving. It had caught Natalie much by surprise yet after she was held still, she kept it cool.

'I'm just too chilled to apply any strength.' She slipped gently from Caitlin's grip and under her arm in an attempt to get free; Caitlin grabbed her wrist just as she did to prevent her, but let go seeing no point in holding her anymore, besides, they both knew it was a joke. Plus there was a small crowd of people gathering behind them, gasping and thinking the fight was real, Caitlin didn't like the attention.

'Yeah sure,' Caitlin replied with a sarcastic tone, 'Because everyone knows that, Miss Hufflepuff.' She always took the opportunity to make fun of the house her friend was sorting in. Although she didn't see the badger house to be worst of them all, she still thought everyone in it had too many flaws and was really quite pathetic. Caitlin knew everyone was too kind and too friendly and she knew that if any of them were ever in a fight, they would lose hands down, and that would never be a good thing if they had to actually fight one day. By now Natalie had exclaimed she was like a Jellyfish and started making her arms wobble everywhere. 'Great' Caitlin thought, shaking her head even more now.

'You are a complete retard.' She smiled as she talked though, as much as Natalie's behaviour annoyed her she couldn't be mad at her, she was just so Hufflepuff… The crowd that had formed as Caitlin had held her friend against the wall still half lingered yet by now the remaining people started giving the girls strange looks and that was when Caitlin knew she had to pull Natalie away from the street.

They had entered a small park that was close to Diagon Alley, a wizard park, of course, muggles didn't know of its existence. The girls sat down under a tree, beside where some boys were playing a small game of Quidditch, they were still laughing about Natalie's abnormal behaviour. Natalie knew she was strange and she loved bashing herself about it as much as her friend did.

'I wish September would just hurry up, y'know. I miss all of this and I hardly ever meet up with anyone out of school.' Caitlin sighed, in fact hardly was closer to never.

'I know same.' Natalie still grinned at the remark, her whole family got along so she still rarely was bored in the holidays. Even if she did she have the open offer of wand making she could always resort to.

Caitlin looked up to see the Quidditch game, and watched them play for a little while, she wished she had enough friends that would meet up to play a full game, but she knew that would never be the case. She longed to play Quidditch, yet even at school she hadn't been accepted, well she was ill at the time they were a training session to accept new people into the house teams…

'Y'know, this is what I want to do when I'm older, I'll play Quidditch, for a professional team, all good and proper, not just messing around at the park. I could earn quite a bit too.' If only, she thought.

Natalie nodded in agreement; she knew how enthusiastic Caitlin was about the sport. 'Yeah you should, you're amazing at Quidditch! Way better than me and I'm not too bad.' She tried to kid herself that she was an alright flyer, forgetting the mishap that was her landing earlier.

'Thanks,' Caitlin half smiled, showing a little bit of concern for herself, 'I just wish I was noticed more at school though, it'd be so cool to play for Ravenclaw and no one becomes a professional player if they never played for a team at school.' She sighed, missing the chance to play in her second year really lowered her self-esteem, and everyone is looking for younger players who will play from their second year right until their seventh, not third or fourth years.

'Ravenclaw would be so lucky to have you; they don't know what they're missing out on! I should try for the Hufflepuff team. You know what our team are like.' Natalie's house team wasn't the best team at Hogwarts, not even second or third best, the entirety of the team, despite trying their best, wouldn't be so bothered if they lost and see the whole game as just a bit of fun and believe everyone who wants to play should get a chance to. Therefore anyone in Hufflepuff, good or bad at the game, normally gets a shot, which was never good at all for the house. They hadn't won the Quidditch cup in 8 years and the odds for winning a game was roughly 1 in 14.

'Thanks,' the half smile cast upon Caitlin's face had somewhat turned into a grin, 'Hufflepuff might, and I say might, be able to just win a few games if you play!' Both girls giggled and before they knew it they were exchanging memories of how bad Hufflepuff had been playing over the time they had been studying at Hogwarts before moving on to Caitlin announcing all the flaws in the game being played in front of them which must have lasted a good five minutes. Natalie thought about telling Caitlin to shut up going on about the game, but she didn't, she couldn't.

Having finished the lecture about the game, Natalie proposed to go swimming.

'Because a pool's too mainstream,' she announced looming over the pond in the corner of the park.

'You have got to joking!' Caitlin knew for a fact that Natalie was slightly weird but she didn't realise that being weird had the price of losing the common knowledge of hygiene. Caitlin knew very well she was not stepping foot in the pond.

Natalie shook her head and swung her backpack off, unzipping it and pulling out two pieces of Gillyweed. 'Come on, it's not that bad.' She offers Caitlin one of the pieces.

Caitlin took one of the pieces, reluctantly, and stared down at it, before looking at the pond, and then back at Natalie. 'Nat, why do you have Gillyweed in your bag?' she looked down at it in disbelief.

'Perks of being a keen herboligist?'

Caitlin sighed, 'I hate you,' She joked taking her own bag off. Caitlin didn't know why she trusted Nat so much, and went along with the things she did, but then again, Nat often followed her if she wanted something doing too, so it was only fair. 'My clothes will get wet you know, I don't have spare ones.' Nevertheless she tried to make up a few excuses.

'I have some spare,' Natalie announced, 'two in fact, one pair of trousers and a shirt for each.'

'You've been planning this for a while, haven't you?' Caitlin actually couldn't believe it herself.

'I thought, maybe, that we could go swimming, that's all, and considering we only sent one letter to each other, I couldn't exactly tell you… I brought some clothes for you in case you didn't bring any yourself.' Natalie smiled, 'Come on then, let's go in, I promise not for long.'

'Damn you,' Caitlin shook her head; she couldn't believe someone could actually change her mind in the matter. Then again, her hair and clothes were quite wet from the rain earlier, anyway.

Nat had already taken a bite from the Gillyweed and was slipping into the pond, not actually caring if anyone saw her. She submerged into the water, diving headfirst, where Caitlin could see her feet had already turned into flippers. Caitlin took a bite too, she had never eaten Gillyweed before, and she didn't realise how bad it tasted – yet another reason she shouldn't have been swayed to actually going along with her friend.

It had been a minute since Caitlin had gone into the pond, yet she could already admit it wasn't the most pleasant experience she had had. Natalie was quite the opposite; she was darting around the pond, looking at all the pond creatures and examining plant and algae resting at the bottom, and waving about, trying to get Caitlin to join her in swimming around, but she just sat herself at the pond floor, watching everything around her, and it wasn't very clear if it was just the fact that she didn't like the swimming or she was just generally feeling down, which in her current position, wasn't rare. Natalie agreed with herself not to mention it.

It wasn't long after, when Caitlin had had enough with watching the pond life, and decided to pull herself out of the pool. Nat looked at her as she did and, not being able to leave Caitlin sat on her own up there, got out herself too. Within a good 30 seconds of being completely out of the water, the Gillyweed effect was known to wear off, as it did for both of them.

'You alright?' Nat asked, sitting beside Caitlin, both of them were soaked.

Caitlin nodded 'Yeah fine, just uh,' She took a little pause 'bit cold, that's all.' Nat wasn't entirely sure to believe her. She passed her some of the spare clothes.

'Get changed then, you'll be a bit warmer.'

'And where exactly can I do that?' There wasn't exactly any place private in in site, the park was relatively open all round.

'Good point.' Natalie racked her brain, 'Maybe go in the changing rooms in Flourish and Blotts? We can pretend we're trying something on?'

Caitlin still disapproved, 'They're never gonna let us in wet through.' Nat didn't hesitate to throw Caitlin her new Quidditch hat 'use that as a towel? You'll get a little bit dry anyway.' Caitlin wasn't exactly sure if it was a the best idea ever, but it was all they got, so she took it anyway and tried to dry herself to the best of her ability, before passing it back to Nat, who did the same.

The girls were finally saying their goodbye by the broom rack outside Sugarplum's Sweets Shop, mostly dry, and in new sets of clothes.

'Right, I suppose I'll next see you at Kings Cross?' Nat didn't really want to see the end of the meet up, knowing that Caitlin was going straight back home, to where she knew she hated at the moment.

Caitlin nodded, 'Yep,' She too really didn't want to leave, though she couldn't bring herself to saying anything, it would end up turning way too dramatic than needed, especially considering they would be seeing each other in just over a week anyway, 'I best not stay here talking, no doubt someone will notice I'm missing before long, I really don't wanna make matters worse than they already are.' She sighed, before taking her own broom, mounting it and began to hover. The girls both said their final goodbyes before Caitlin took off to the skies, racing home. All they both had was to anticipate the upcoming school term.


End file.
